Hold Onto Me
by Kitten Kisses
Summary: There she had been, facing the sky… and looking right into his soft brown eyes as he had faded away…The life draining from him so quickly that all he had time for was a few simple words… I'm afraid, Colette, he had whispered to her… Hold…me…


_Hold Onto Me_

**Dedicated To ;** **All of my wonderful reviewers for "_Take Me Away_", I wrote this for my first 100 reviews in the Tales of Symphonia section. Thank you all for your support!**

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The rain beat down on the city of Palmacosta. The buildings had been smashed…beaten… and the once-bustling city had been reduced to…nothing.

The dead had been removed… but the stench still hung in the air. The few survivors had determined that rebuilding wasn't worth it.

Even after the worlds had been reunited, and peace had been restored…the city had stayed a quiet, dead place. Only a ghost of what it once was. A young woman walked through the streets, her feet clicking lightly against the cobblestone.

Her wet blonde hair blew around her as the rain soaked through her clothes…but she didn't seem to mind at all.

Her blue eyes were downcast…sad…

She truly felt alone in this town… just as the people must have felt as they hung onto life by a thread… enveloped by helplessness and sorrow. Knowing that they were going to die, but still clinging onto a small hope that they would live to see another day.

What a _Chosen_ she had turned out to be! Not only had she failed this city…that had once been a beautiful place, where the people had looked to her for guidance… she had failed the people in it…the people that had perished here…unable to call for help…unable to breathe… slowly suffocating underneath the rubble of the homes and business buildings…

She had let it happen…

She hadn't stopped by to see what had happened…hadn't come by to try and help… She had forgotten about them…

And now it was too late… Neil, Chocolat's mother… the young innocent children…

She bowed her head, letting the rain wash down her face. Nobody could see her crying, here. The rain made her look as if she were only flushed and wet.

But she felt as if she deserved every bit of it…

She had failed them…had failed her world…and she had failed Lloyd… She could still remember how they had laughed and played around… before fighting Mithos… so innocent, so naïve they were! They all believed whole-heartedly that they would beat Yggdrasil…

But they never had thought of the consequences… Nobody had even suspected for a moment that any one of them would die…

But then, there she had been…lying on the ground, facing the sky… and looking right into his soft brown eyes as he had faded away…The life draining from him so quickly, that all he had time for was a few simple words…

_"I'm afraid, Colette," he had whispered to her… "Hold…me…"_

And then, she had wrapped her arms around his neck, and buried her face into his chest, listening as the distance between heartbeats increased…

And then…there was nothing.

She felt them, then. The warm, salty tears trickling softly down her face… They mixed with the cool rain before soaking into her shirt. She had sobbed, then… Screaming and begging for him to come back…

But it hadn't worked… He was gone…and she would have been, too, if Raine had not have thrown her staff at her, knocking her to the side; just in time to avoid a streak of lightning headed for her face.

Suddenly, she stopped in her tracks, crouching down to pick up a small, soggy shape on the ground. Two black button eyes stared back at her from the wet brown fur of a small teddy bear. The little creature's left ear was gone, and he had a hole in his side…

Colette simply held the bear in her hands, watching the lifeless eyes, and the lopsided sewing job for a smile…

The bear had belonged to a little girl…she assumed… It had been loved, and cared for… and now its mama was gone…

_'Because of me…'_

A little scarf was wrapped around the stuffed animal's neck, and the blonde slowly untied and unfolded it. The name _"Lily"_ was scrawled in simple embroidery across the bottom corner of the scarf.

Kneeling, now, Colette tied the scarf back in place, and tucked the stuffing in the bear's leg back where it belonged. "D…don't worry, Lily…" she muttered softly to herself, cradling the bear against her chest tightly as her tears continued to flow. "I…I'll hold you so you don't get s…scared…"

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Quite interestingly twisted (and short), hmm? I actually thought of this while writing my last chapter to "Take Me Away". I know it isn't long, but I wanted to give it a shot, anyway.

How did you feel when you finished reading this? A curious authoress wants to know.

Thanks,

Kitten Kisses


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